Overview: Making high school count
About this video
An admission officer explains three parts of preparing for college in high school: challenging yourself in your classes over time, especially in the academic core; showing commitment and depth in activities outside the classroom; and preparing for standardized tests, which colleges use alongside your academic record rather than on their own.
You'll be able to
- describe what admission officers look for in a student's classes.
- explain why commitment and depth matter in extracurriculars.
- explain how colleges use standardized tests together with the transcript.
Key words
- academic core
- The main school subjects, such as math, science, English, history and languages.
- extracurricular involvement
- What you do outside of class, such as arts, research, athletics or community service.
- in a vacuum
- On its own, without considering anything else.
- transcript
- Your official record of classes taken and grades earned in high school.
- barometer
- A measure used to compare or judge something; here, a national comparison of performance.
Transcript
- So preparing for college starts as early as possible in high school. First with your classes and class election. What we want to see as admission officers is your academic preparation over time. That you have challenged yourself within your academic environment, within your high school environment and that's going to vary from school to school, but that you've managed to somehow take advantage of the challenging opportunities that exist at your high school in terms of classes.
Really focusing mostly on the academic core. Again, that you're prepared to handle the rigors of college and that's something that we can see over a period of time, over the years of high school. The other piece that we also are focusing on, not only is how well do you function and perform in a classroom setting, but also what you do outside of the classroom.
Your extracurricular involvement is just as important because for all of these college campuses we are residential communities. We are active playgrounds for our students to pursue their interests and their passions, whether that be in the arts or research or athletics or student government or community service, just an example, although there's a multitude of ways that you can get involved.
And so what we want to see is that students not only have the classroom component and the academic preparation, but also have interests and hobbies and passions that are outside of the classroom experience. Again, whatever those things may be. We're looking for commitment there and we're looking for depth in those areas.
Then finally, the other piece that I think makes students probably most nervous is this idea of standardized tests and I honestly say that colleges do not use standardized tests in a vacuum. Meaning, we don't look at standardized tests alone to inform our decisions.
They really are used in conjunction with your academic record, to corroborate what we're already seeing in your performance over a period of time. It's really the only piece of the application that we use that gives us some sort of national barometer to understand your performance, but it really is used in conjunction with your academic record and that transcript.
So prepare for it. Definitely try and take a couple at home prep exams or get those guide books that you can see all over book stores and online. Try and prepare for it as best as you can, but really focus on your academic preparation as well because it really is something that works in tandem with those things.
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